Natalee Holloway Investigation; Dave Holloway and More puzzling actions from Aruba

Dan Abrams Nov 1, 2005

How does a simple request for more specialized equipment turn in to an ordeal? Abrams asks Dave Holloway that very question. The continued search for Natalee Holloway went from a simple telephone call needed from Dompig to the FBI originally asked for last Wednesday to all searchers leaving the island of Aruba this past Monday. The relationship between the ALE and the Holloway/Twitty’s was working so well up until Dave Holloway left Aruba and Dompig met with the FBI last Thursday. One wonders how much more strange this investigation can get?

Abrams: What do you make of Dompig’s comments?

Dave: Well, I arrived on the island on Oct. 18th and the following day, met Dompig and he requested the assistance of the FBI. Indicated he would like for them to come back and utilize them ad much as he could. So we said well, we will try to see if we can make that happen. In the meantime, he indicated that we needed to focus our search efforts in the ocean. So, we were not going to waste anytime so we took off along with Tim Miller of TES and had boats in the water I believe by the weekend.

We soon realized we would need the FBI and some of their search equipment. We forwarded an email to Mr. Dompig sometimes Wednesday requesting that he make a phone call to the FBI so we could get this underwater equipment. I ended up having to leave the island on Thursday and in my reports back from the individuals who were left they felt like the light had been turned out. So I followed up again Saturday with the same email.

We’re all sitting on the bank and can’t get in the water until we get the assistance of the FBI. That team finally had to leave this past Monday or Tuesday.

Abrams: According to Dompig he says he has now spoken with the FBI. Says they had a very productive conversation.Is the real divide here occurring over who he wants to interview? He really wants to talk to Natalee’s friends again. What is the problem with that?

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Beth Holloway On the Eve of Returning to Aruba in search of Natalee Holloway

Beth Holloway Twitty certainly did not mince words last night with Greta Van Susteren, ‘On The Record’ October 31, 2005 regarding her feelings of how recent search events have been handled by Aruban Authorities. Never being one to hold back, Beth Twitty on the eve of her return to Aruba with her brother Paul Reynolds had some real issues to bring forward.

When asked why the searchers had left Aruba, Beth response was as follows:

You know, Greta, when you get a lack of cooperation from the Aruban authorities, when they are not following through with assistance, like they had said they would, there’s no need for them just to live in hotels on the island. You know, they had a mission. We had worked really hard to get all these men together and arranged this, all the equipment. But you know, when they will not follow through and request the FBI’s assistance, there is nothing left for the searchers to do.

With regards to the water searchers and the special additional equipment that was required and being requested Beth Twitty made the following comment.

They needed some additional equipment to conduct the water searches. They needed some larger boats. There were several things they needed. The FBI had it. What Dave and Tim Miller had tried to do was get the Aruban authorities to request the FBI’s assistance in this because they have the necessary equipment. Yet they had not done that as of Saturday. Now today is Monday, the 31st, and it still had not come through, so there’s no need for them to remain on the island, just living in hotels, waiting on the Aruban authorities to get moving and request the FBI’s assistance.

These requests were actually made known to Scared Monkeys by separate independent sources and the sudden what appeared to be a lack of cooperation. The initial requests for this equipment were made last week and finally with no response over five days the searchers returned back to the United States.

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Natalee Holloway Investigation: Beth Twitty To Return to Aruba Today

Beth Twitty is returning to Aruba today to further the search efforts for her daughter Natalee Holloway. She will be joined by her brother Paul Reynolds in these efforts pursue the investigations. This is expected to be a short trip to Aruba in hopes of meeting with Deputy Police Chief Gerold Dompig and Prosecutor Karen Janssen.

Natalee Holloway’s mother is not giving up. Beth Twitty is scheduled to leave for Aruba Tuesday morning.

Although there is nothing new in the investigation, Twitty said she plans to stay in Aruba for the rest of the week to help with the search.

From reports last night from Beth’s interview with Greta it looks like the wheels have come off the cart from Jug Twitty making the comment to Rita Cosby, “It is optimistic. I hope—you know, Gerold was very instrumental in the beginning of the investigation“.

It appears that Beth Twitty may be taking off the gloves on this trip to Aruba as one source mentioned; Beth Twitty referenced to Greta Van Susteren that all of the volunteers who were in Aruba left because there was “nothing left for the searchers to do.”

“There is no sense in them just sitting around the hotel room doing nothing,” Twitty said. She said it was not easy coordinating the volunteer searchers, because they have to take time from their jobs and their families.

It had been said by both Dave Holloway and Tim Miller of Equusearch and again by Beth Twitty that the searchers needed extra equipment to complete their search. This equipment that would provide for deeper underwater searches could be made available from the FBI, but Aruban officials first had to request the FBI’s assistance. To date it had not been done.

Beth even went so far to say that phone calls to Dompig by her were never returned. Looks like the investigation is back to the good old days of communication and cooperation.

Dompig: “I can say, even though we butted heads a couple of times, but we basically renewed our vows to work together” in the Natalee Holloway Investigation

From the ‘Rita Cosby Live & Direct’ for Oct. 27th, 2005 interview comes a couple of rather odd and interesting comments from Dompig.

DOMPIG: No, not at all, because you have to keep an open mind, of course. But don’t forget that, if we look at the statements from especially Joran, I have received today an overview of all the several moments where he has basically lied. And that’s a lot.

COSBY: Do you believe that you’ll be coming to the states soon possibly, Chief?

DOMPIG: Well, I hope I’m safe coming to the states, because there’s a couple of people that are not really pleased with the work that we’ve done. But, if the time is there, I’ll be glad to come.

Then Dompig goes into the possible discrepancies again which seem could be easily proved or disproved. For more of the interview … from Rita Cosby:

And now we’re going to move on to the case in Aruba. Now to new details out of there in the search for a missing teen, Natalee Holloway. The Aruban deputy police chief has just wrapped up a closed-door meeting with the FBI.

This as divers take to the waters around the island paradise to hunt for new clues in Natalee’s disappearance. On the phone tonight from Aruba is the island’s deputy chief of police, Gerold Dompig.

Chief, thank you. First of all, how did the meeting go? And how long was the meeting with the FBI?

GEROLD DOMPIG, DEPUTY POLICY CHIEF OF ARUBA: Well, it was a great meeting. And basically, I can say, even though we butted heads a couple of times, but we basically renewed our vows to work together. And we sat for, I think, a little over five hours, but it was a great meeting.

COSBY: What’s the next step, Chief, in terms of who you want to interview next and where you’re headed?

DOMPIG: Well, we’re still looking at the same scenarios. And we’re pretty much, you would say, encouraged by the fact that the main scenario where we still look at these three boys is also the scenario that the FBI believes that we are on the right track.
COSBY: Is there a possibility she may have run away? Can you exclude that?

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Gerold Dompig focusing his attention to the US in the investigation of Natalee Holloway

Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig is now head of the Investigating Team in the Natalee Holloway case has made some rather peculiar statements lately regarding the focus of his attention. Dompig has made public demands on wanting to question the Mountain Brook teens that were on vacation in Aruba when Natalee Holloway went missing and to question Beth Twitty who he claims has been uncooperative. In an A.M. Digital article Gerold Dompig stated the following:

Another issue is that so far the investigation has been focused in Aruba. Dompig said that now he and the team have redirected the focus to also include the US, because the group of students came from the US to party in Aruba and have a good time and it cannot be that they do not know anything about what happened.

For the police commissioner the information that the investigating team received from the FBI does not represent much. Therefore Dompig will make the same appeal on the Alabama teens as he did in Aruba: to call 011 297 587 0009 ext 101 to give any information that they may have.

Dompig has also made similar comments during recent talk shows as well. One can only hope that the Aruban investigators are actually contacting the Mountain Brook families directly and privately as well to answer any such questions and not just using talk shows. Dompig also made a similar comment in Diario; COMISARIO DOMPIGA TA BAY PIDI OMPAÃ’ERONAN DI NATALEE HOLLOWAY, PA KIBRA NAN SIKENCIO (Commissioner Dompig will ask for Natalee Holloway’s classmates to break their silence), where he Dompig asked the Mountain Brook teens to come forward and break their silence.

According to the commissioner, they were focusing the investigation very much on Aruba only, while now along with the team, Dompig is focusing on America as well.

The commissioner explains that one cannot forget that this was a group which drank together and had a good time, but it is not possible that nobody knows anything.

Dompig explains that the classmates’ declarations which they got from the FBI do not give sufficient information.

Although it is important to get statements and accounts from all involved including those that were with Natalee Holloway during her vacation to Aruba one wonders why now after five months. Why was this not done initially? If there were gaps in time or missing information why were there not follow up questions in the period between now and the point in which Natalee went missing? Who waits five months to get answers? I guess the same can be said as to why after five months no search has ever been made of the primary suspects home?

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